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Blow film review
BLOW
Running time: 124 mins
Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ray Liotta, Rachel Griffiths, Paul Reubens, Jordi Mollà, Franka Potente, Ethan Suplee
Blow's director Ted Demme said that after hearing the story of George Jung, he considered it a challenge to show the notorious drug dealer in a sympathetic light. It's fair to say that he succeeded, but the problem is that in so doing he has ended up removing all traces of whatever it was in Jung's character that enabled him to rise up to become phenomenally wealthy and one of the pioneering figures in introducing America to cocaine.
Aiding Demme's cause was the casting of Johnny Depp in the role of Jung. For all his wonderful qualities, it is difficult to buy Depp as ruthless and threatening and although he did a commendable job, his performance was undermined at the end when the closing credits included a photo of the real Jung looking anything but the innocent and pretty person Depp conveyed.
Despite the fact that we were presented with a romanticised version of Jung's life, Blow provides an entertaining insight into the transformation of a small time dope dealer into one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals.
Growing up with a weak father (played superbly by Ray Liotta) and a domineering mother (the always good but too youthful Rachel Griffiths), the young George vows never to be poor and heads off to California with his bulky best mate Tuna (Ethan Suplee) to seek his fortune. There he is quickly introduced into the world of marijuana dealing by the colourful and camp Derek Foreal, played with delicious exuberance by Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman).
With opportunistic good fortune and ambition Jung soon accrues vast wealth and a reputation through the nationwide dope dealing enterprise he masterminds with his girlfriend Barbara (Franka Potente). The endless rounds of partying, which are threatened by his arrest, finally end with the premature death of Barbara through cancer. With his anchor gone, he drifts, finally ending up in prison. It was this experience above all others that changed his life. It was here that he went from an apprentice drug dealer to a master, in the process meeting up with Colmbian Diego Delgado (Jordi Mollà).
George's illicit career is at odds with the upstanding morals of his parents, a situation that pains him as he is disowned by his mother and compelled to forsake his father.
Once free, George heads down to South America where he is introduced to Escobar as the man to expand his cocaine empire into America. And it was here, protected by his association with the feared Escobar, that he steals the vivacious Mirtha (Penelope Cruz) from her fiancé. As the cocaine craze grew, so did George's wealth, and with Mirtha giving birth to their daughter everything was looking good.
It is always a challenge for an actor to convey convincingly the aging of character over a long period of time. For Jung's rise, Depp moves seamlessly. It is with his downfall, when middle-aged spread and the toll of his excesses catch up with him, that things come unstuck. For the latter stages of the film Depp waddles around like a duck with a hernia as his padded girth combines with a series of bad wigs to create a cartoon figure.
Initially Blow showed promise, but by the end, as the drama made way for melodrama and the once plausible Jung had metamorhphosised into a clown, all semblance of credulity had gone with it. Not so much Blow as Blown.
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